The Wisconsin Badgers fell short 41-13 to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a competitive first game of the season at Lambeau Field, inspiring confidence for 2026 while showing the key areas of improvement needed.
The Badgers kept Notre Dame in check through the first 30 minutes, trailing 13-10 at halftime, and continued to fight throughout the game, although an early third-quarter stretch from the Fighting Irish was the leading force to them winning the game.
Wisconsin started with the ball, but had
a quick three-and-out, as they were stuffed on first down and couldn’t recover. The defense had a strong opening drive, though, as the run defense started off on a good note and Sebastian Cheeks got home on a strip sack on Notre Dame’s first third down, but the Fighting Irish recovered.
Wisconsin blocked the punt, getting field position in plus territory, and that led to the first points of the game. Wisconsin had a nice Abu Sama III run on 3rd & 6 with good blocking and got to the red zone, where they eventually settled for a field goal.
Notre Dame overcame tough field position on its next drive, converting a fourth down, while finding a hole in Wisconsin’s off coverage to the field side with a couple of short passes. They eventually got into field goal range and drilled a 52-yarder to tie the game up there after the defense got a stop.
The Fighting Irish were back on the field shortly as backup running back Harrison Bortolotti fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving Notre Dame a chance near the red zone. After a couple of high-quality plays from Wisconsin’s defense, the Badgers were beaten by a play-action pass for a touchdown, giving Notre Dame a 10-3 lead.
Wisconsin’s next drive saw a few mistakes from Colton Joseph, who was late on a quick out, which Leonard Moore broke up. Joseph also missed an open boundary receiver on a great call by Jeff Grimes, who used a motion that froze Notre Dame. But the quarterback focused solely on the inside receiver, who got double coverage, rather than the open man, resulting in another incompletion. They did get some good news, though, as Sean West had a punt downed at the one-yard line.
The Badgers got a quick three-and-out and got great field position, which they quickly capitalized on with a Malachi Coleman 28-yard score on a stop-and-go over Jayden Sanders, tying the game at 10 apiece.
Sensing Wisconsin’s aggressiveness and success stopping the run, Notre Dame began hitting on the intermediate dig routes, getting chunk plays through the air that quickly moved the ball down the field. But inside Wisconsin territory, the run defense settled up, and Javan Robinson had a nice third-down play to force a field goal.
The score would remain 13-10 going into halftime, although the Badgers did have one more drive that saw success before the half ended. Thanks to a couple of quality play designs from Jeff Grimes, the Badgers converted a couple of first downs and got to the Notre Dame 36-yard line, but elected to punt after calling timeout.
Following the half is where the game really started to break open. Notre Dame’s offense started working well in space through the air, as Wisconsin missed a couple of tackles, and that compounded into a nine-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that gave the Irish a 20-10 lead.
After a first down run, the Badgers went to the passing game and got two rough reps from Colton Joseph: 1) a poor throw with bad feet, airmailing a comeback to Malachi Coleman and 2) a miscommunication (it seemed like) with Chris Brooks where the wideout settled against off coverage while Joseph expected an out. The latter led to a pick-six that really blew the game open 27-10, making things very tough for the Badgers from there.
Wisconsin had a long 14-play drive after that, trying their best to claw back into the game as they converted a number of first downs. Jeff Grimes set up a couple of easy throws for Joseph to hit, mixing in screens, as well as another stop-and-go for Coleman out of the slot up the seam for 17 yards. The run game was also starting to slowly click again, and Wisconsin got well into Notre Dame territory. But they got stuck there, leading to a 14-play, 47-yard field goal drive that cut the lead to 14.
Notre Dame’s offense churned down the field once again, going eight plays for 75 yards and another touchdown as they exploited the digs and some missed tackles, while its run game started to become successful. That gave the Irish a 34-13 lead, while also taking a ton of clock off the board, as Notre Dame took a three-touchdown lead into the fourth quarter.
The Irish wrapped things up from there, scoring a late touchdown to eventually win 41-13 in a blowout game.
